Bee-Killing Insecticide Neonicotinoids Showing Up In Major Rivers

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There is no “away” on Planet Earth. This is it. So whatever we make/use/dispose of is still here and always will be.

Toxic neonicotinoids, insecticides used in agriculture, have been found in six states and nine Midwestern rivers, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. Neonicotinoids have been directly linked to the decimation of the honeybee population around the world, and there have been suggestions that they could be affecting other small animal life as well. I am sure the fish and other water creatures aren’t big fans of clouds of toxic crap filling up their habitats.

“If you get enough rain to transport it over land or into tile drains, then it gets into streams quite quickly at higher concentrations,” said lead researcher Kathryn Kuivila from the USGS Oregon Water Science Center in Portland, Oregon.

Neonicotinoids are chemically similar to nicotine and were first developed in the 1980s. Currently, Bayer and Monsanto (among others) manufacture and sell then, and they are the most widely used insecticide in the world. Interestingly enough, both Bayer and Monsanto attend the Sustainable Brands conference every year, and Monsanto gives millions of dollars to The Nature Conservancy. But that doesn’t stop them from raking in the profit off these chemicals; after all, it only matters that you SAY if you care, not if you actually do.

If you’re old enough, you remember the spraying of DDT all over everything to kill off mosquitos… that is, until they found out it was also going to kill us off, too. The use of these neonicotinoids is basically the same thing, in that we are using them to kill off bugs only to find out that they are also causing colony collapse disorder, which will eventually result in human collapse disorder. As without bees, we will not – can not – survive. Oh, and an added bonus? Neonicotinoids are 10,000 times as powerful as DDT.